Immigrants Notch Victory in Court Against Trump

Judge Furman allows Census lawsuit to move forward

NEW YORK, NY - Today, Federal Judge Jesse Furman ruled against the Trump administration’s request to dismiss New York v. Department of Commerce, and will allow the lawsuit to move forward. The lawsuit argues that adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census violates the Constitution, which requires an actual count of every person, violates the Administrative Procedure Act because it is beyond the Department’s statutory authority and is arbitrary and capricious, and reverses seven decades of precedent without a factual basis.

Steven Choi, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, issued the following statement:

“New York’s 4.4 million immigrants will be counted regardless of Trump’s attempts to keep us down. Today was a big victory for all New Yorkers and we’re not going to lose a dime or our voices to D.C.”

Background

On April 3rd, the New York Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuit– New York v. Deparment of Commerce– in the Southern District of New York to stop the Commerce Department from adding the citizenship question to the 2020 Census. Currently 18 states, the District of Columbia, several cities, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors have joined the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit. On May 25, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Judge Furman on July 3rd stated it was “unlikely he would dismiss the case in its entirety” and granted the AG’s office request for additional documents beyond letters already released.

The New York Immigration Coalition, together with over eighty partners, has formed New York Counts 2020, a coalition to counter the expected impact of the citizenship question on the 2020 census. The addition of a citizenship question will stoke unnecessary fear in immigrant communities and could result in a significant undercount, particularly already under-counted racial and ethnic minority groups. With immigrants constituting nearly 1 out of 4 New Yorkers, an undercount in the 2020 Census will have catastrophic consequences – costing all New Yorkers political power and billions of dollars in federal funding for key services.

New York Counts 2020 includes:

Academy of Medical and Public Health Services

ACCESS WNY

ADL and 67th Precinct Clergy Council

African Services Committee

American Immigration Lawyers Association - New York Chapter

Arab American Association of New York

Asian American Federation

Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)

Association for Better New York

Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD)

Bangladeshi American Community Development and Youth Services (BACDYS)